I have a star named Gremhog in the lovely galaxy. This blog will be dedicated to the stars in my life...the ones known and the ones yet to be discovered.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Local Library

Forever, our family has used the library. It provided books and activities and homework resources, CDs, VHS movies and then DVDs, classes and discussions. It has always been the best place to be. Our library here in Paradise sits on the shores of Lake Erie. The land and grant money was donated by a couple who lived in our city and the library is named after them, Domonkas Library. Recently I was told of a couple of vacancies on the Lorain Public Library Board of Trustees and submitted my application. Then came the interview process and the selection and finally the nomination and acceptance by the Lorain City School Board. The little announcement at the top was in the Avon Lake Press on December 12, 2012. Guess it's not a secret anymore.

I was called for an interview and the following is a synopsis of our discussion. What follows after this are short accounts from my children, some in their own words, some I put down the things they mentioned. I look forward to being able to use my time in this manner. Libraries are wonderful and magical places and when families are wise enough to take advantage of all they offer, they are able to increase in knowledge and growth and sociality.

The Lorain Public Library System (LPLS) is
pleased to welcome Susan Jane Hatch, of Sheffield Lake, to its Board of
Trustees.

“A Library is a wonderful, magical place
that transports you somewhere else,” Hatch said. In a day and age that everything costs so
much money, the Domonkas Library and all of Lorain Public Library System offers
so much and for free. That’s one of the greatest benefits of Libraries,” she
said.

Susan will fill the unexpired term of
Trustee Douglas Petersen, for the period of January 1, 2013 through December
31, 2017. Petersen served for 14 years.''

She said her goals while serving on the
Library Board include spreading the perception of the Library as a friendly
place for learning new skills, keeping the Library up-to-date and looking to
fulfill its future needs.

Hatch, whose background is education, is currently serving as the secretary for The Friends of the Domonkas Library.

She is also currently taking classes in American
Sign Language, and she hopes to help someone “hear” the answers to their
questions one day, she said.

Serving on the Library Board “is a good fit
for me at this time,” Hatch said.

“I have five children and we lived at the (Domonkas) Library. You get
to a point that you want to give back, she said. “This is something where I
might be able to serve,” she said.

She and her husband have four daughters, one
son and 16 grandchildren.

Her children now live in Michigan, Indiana,
Pennsylvania, Columbus, and Lakewood.

The Library has played an important role in
her family, who share the love of reading. “I’m
a big proponent of reading and my children love reading,” Hatch said. The books on her end table that she's going to read include C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce,
J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy, Silent No More: Victim 1's Fight for Justice
Against Jerry Sandusky, and Medusa's
Gaze and Vampire's Bite: The Science of Monsters by Matt Kaplan.

That’s if her husband doesn’t get to those
books first. “Every time I bring home a book from the
Library, my husband disappears with it,” she laughed. “He likes to read about
one novel a year but for some reason ends up picking the books I bring.”

Reading and Libraries have always been a
part of her life.

At Domonkas “My children did their homework
and their research for school, made friends there,” Hatch said. “It was a nice,
warm welcoming place.”

Her best memories of Domonkas were taking
her children to story times and borrowing books from the Library, and even
using the computers. “I happen to love computers now, but I
didn’t start out that way,” she laughed. “I’m converted to computers now.”

At Domonkas Branch Library, she and her
family have attended adult and children craft classes and cooking classes.
Plus, she’s attended book clubs.

Her parents were also members of the Friends of the DomonkasLibrary and helped with its Book Sales.

As a grandmother now, she hopes to pass
along the love of Libraries to her grandchildren. At the most recent Domonkas Book Sale, she
was able to buy great children’s books for her grandchildren.

Her family also shares the belief in civic
service. Driven by their Christian belief of
serving,her third daughter used to volunteer at the Domonkas
Branch Library, she said.

Hatch said her first cherished memory of a
Library dates back to when she was a child and her mom would take her to the Parma
Library for story times.

“The
Library had this one section of the wall shelves where a librarian could tap it
and this hidden door would open, and the children would enter into this magical
place, a special room for stories,” she said.

Hatch said she really appreciates that LPLS
is part of the CLEVNET library consortium. LPLS is one of 38 Libraries that is a
CLEVNET member, allowing us to offer over 10 million items and one of the
largest eMedia collections in the country to our library patrons. “Books are so
easy to find online,” she said.

“I’m looking forward to this,” (serving on
the Library Board), she said.

I remember once there was a kite making
activity...BEFORE THAT GREAT FENCE (this is the fence Jordan installed for his Eagle Scout project) was put up...and I went with Cara and
Jocelyn. We made a few kites. One being a 3 tiered carp kite. And Jocelyn
got her pix in the news paper.

Every single year there was the Summer reading
program. And Cara and I always were top readers! Oh yeah. (
Of course later I'm sure the other 3 were too.) B/c the top readers got
to go to an end of the summer celebration.

I loved that Domonkas had a special
section for all of the Newberry Award books. I used to read them... A LOT.
Loved them.

I remember watching two movies in that
back room in the library with Cara....The Hobbit...a cartoon version. And
"Something Wicked This Way Comes!" scarrrrry!

The children's section used to be
in the front of the library back when I was growing up.

As a student at Forestlawn Elementary,
one year, my grade walked up to the library to learn all about the card
catalog. THE CARD CATALOG!! haha. And, I was proud of myself b/c I
already had my own library card (on cardstock). I think kids had a
different color than adults. But it was like salmon or pink. And, one of
my elementary teachers was talking about geology...and sandstone. And said that the
library was made out of sandstone....and encouraged us to touch it the next
time we went to the library. I always want to touch the outside walls
when I'm up there while visiting home!

From my 2nd, Cara

I still have my first card!

Once watched “Something Wicked This Way
Comes” and it was so scary. I remembered thinking mom were out talking with her friends having a great time and you didn't know we were watching a bad
movie.

One celebration I got to pick a book as
an award. I really wanted a certain book but didn't think I could finish it before
it was due. Fortunately Dawn came by after me and she picked it out. I was
surprised they actually gave us a library book for keeps!

I remember riding our bikes with Dad
down Lake Road to the library. That was big time riding so far on the big
road.

We had a Christmas party there once.
Cookies in the library! I remember the librarians were kind but very
serious in teaching us the proper way to treat library books. No eating, need
clean hands and never bend the binding by folding it all the way to the
back.

I remember enjoying my school friends there and realizing that
this wonderful place was a public library. I must have thought it was there
just for my family.

From my 3rd, Jocelyn…the one who
spent hours scrapping off the due date stickers from book as a service project

I remember going to a Halloween party there and
discovering candy corn...yum! PLUS

I remember decorating that big pine tree in brownies at Christmastime with bird feeder ornaments.

The librarians were very helpful to me when I needed a
service project. I always had a pile of
books waiting for me. This was when the
librarians would attach a sticker with the due date on it. After a while there were just too many
stickers and I would sit and carefully remove the stickers, being sure to not
damage the books nor their covers.

From my 4th
Marissa

From my 4th
Marissa….The
library was also my go-to place for books.
I always took home stacks of books.
But the beautiful library in Sheffield Lake was the best place to go
watch the lake. It was fun to watch the
lake through the windows.

From my
only son, Jordan

When it
came time to do my Eagle Scout project, there was an area next to the library,
right alongside the lakeshore. Several
people (drunks, actually) had fallen off that cliff and I chose to build a
fence, continuing along the same line and the same kind of fence that Domonkas
had. That fence is no longer there since
the park was turned into a boat dock.